Odysseus or Ulysses pronounced is the main hero in Homer's epic poem, the Odyssey, and plays a key role in Homer's Iliad.
King of Ithaca, husband of Penelope, father of Telemachus, and son of Laërtes and Anticlea (the tragedy Iphigenia at Aulis names Sysiphus as his father), Odysseus is renowned for his guile and resourcefulness, and is most famous for the ten eventful years it took him to return home after the Trojan War.
Relatively little is known of Odysseus' background except that his grandfather (or step-grandfather) is Arcesius, son of Cephalus and grandson of Aeolus. Ithaca, an island along the Ionian coastline of Greece, is one of several islands that would have comprised the realm of Odysseus' family, but the true extent of the Cephallenian realm and the actual identities of the islands named in Homer's works are unknown.
The name has several variants: Olysseus, Oulixeus, Oulixes and he was known as Ulysses in Latin or Ulixes in Roman mythology.
The verb odussōmaisuggests that the name could be rendered as "the one who is wrathful, at the same time, is hated". This interpretation is reinforced by Odysseus' and Poseidon's mutual wrath for one another. One may also read the name as "pain", or "the one inflicting and suffering pain" — not surprisingly, Odysseus frequently suffers pain (mental and or physical) if he inflicts pain on someone else. Yet another origin is the Greek οδηγός, "a guide the one showing the way". The name means "son of pain", according to Homer.
Odysseus sometimes receives the epithet Laertiades, son of Laërtes.His name and stories were copied into Etruscan religion under the name Uthuze.In the Odyssey, Book XIX (405-411) we learn that Odysseus' name means 'son of pain' and his father named him that because his grandfather suggested it.
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Code: 01537
Dimensions: 23x25,5cm
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